False Requests Flood, Shut BLS Web Site
The Bureau of Labor Statistics was "brought to its knees" when its World Wide Web site was flooded with hundreds of thousands of fake information requests a minute, a tactic known in the computer world as "spamming." The tide of spam temporarily shut down the Web site, frustrating scores of economists and investors who have started to depend on the Internet to receive the latest economic data.Jan. 9, 1998